Wednesday, June 24, 2015

FOX SOURED ON PALIN A LONG TIME AGO

It would be nice to think that this means Fox News is changing, but that's unlikely:

Fox News will not renew its contract with Sarah Palin, whose bombastic appearances have been a cable staple since the former Alaska governor’s failed run on John McCain’s ticket in the 2008 presidential election cycle. When asked for comment, a Fox News spokesperson confirmed the network had amicably parted ways with the governor on June 1.

Palin, 51, is expected to make occasional guest appearances on Fox and Fox Business, and will appear on other networks and cables. She has a show on the Sportsman Channel, does a lot of speeches, and will announce a new publishing project soon.

The handwriting was on the wall for Palin in late January when she was hinting that she might join the presidential race. Howard Kurtz published a roundup of skeptical commentary at FoxNews.com under the title "Panning Palin: Why Conservative Media Are Dismissing Her 2016 Prospects." At the same time, Palin got into a tiff with Bill O'Reilly, who was also dismissive about her presidential prospects:

“Even there on Fox, kind of a quasi- or assumed conservative outlet,” Palin [said], “we have all day listening to the tease with Bill O’Reilly’s, he’s talking about the guests on his show tonight, or the commentary on his show, and that would be, ‘Oh, all these GOP contenders thinking about running like Donald Trump, Sarah Palin,’ and he names them off -- he says, ‘Oh, what a reality show that would be, yuck-yuck.’”

... “No, the people of America deserve the best, and competition through a GOP primary, whether a Bill O’Reilly or somebody else assumes it’s a reality show or not, they deserve that competition to surface the competitor who can take on Hillary or whomever it may be and win for this country,” Palin said.

When you've got a cargohold-full of right-wing blowhards who will pontificate for nothing, why pay Palin? No other network is going to hire her, she's not going to bring in new viewers or keep old ones, and she can't even articulate the talking points well.